As the “PC” dies(?), the cloud grows

A new report from IDC claims that, “by 2015, more U.S. Internet users will access the Internet through mobile devices than through PCs or other wireline devices.” IDC includes tablets in the roster of non-PC mobile devices, although I confess that I typically consider a tablet to be a “PC.” (For most analysts and pundits nowadays, “PC” seems to mean “something with a mouse/trackpad and keyboard.)

More important than the share of mobile users surpassing the share of “mouse + keyboard” users (again, why is this input distinction invested with such significance?) is the fact that IDC projects that another 700 million users by 2015. Keep this stat in mind, because you’re going to hear plenty of similar talk out of Intel at IDF this week.

At the most recent Intel Investor Day, Intel CEO Paul Otellini claimed that for every 600 smartphones you need a server; and the same for every 122 tablets. So regardless of how Intel is faring vs. ARM on the cloud client front, the growth of the Internet via mobile—even of 100% of those mobile clients run non-Intel hardware—is still going to be huge for Intel’s booming cloud server business (and everyone else’s cloud server business, for that matter).

Back to the client issue, though: Intel is also keen to argue that a “tablet” is just another type of PC, and the company has been trying to redefine “PC” to cover the kinds of applications—tablets, set-top boxes, and the like—that most pundit like to put in the “post-PC” bucket. I’m sort of in this camp myself. Tablets, set-top boxes, and even mobile phones are all computers, and they’re all personal, so why not just admit that “PC” is a spectrum of devices of different sizes, shapes, and usage models? It keeps journalists and analysts busy churning out “death of the PC” headlines, I guess, but other than that I’m not sure what purpose it serves.